


Building Legacies

by Gothic_Lolita



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Bucky Barnes Feels, Canon Compliant, Gen, I hated canon but I need to work my feelings out or so my therapist says, Morgan Stark feels, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Parent Tony Stark, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), i'm bitter, likely the only thing compliant with this damn movie i'm ever going to write
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-04
Updated: 2019-05-04
Packaged: 2020-02-23 19:59:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18708967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gothic_Lolita/pseuds/Gothic_Lolita
Summary: Bucky knew he shouldn't have a single thing to do with Morgan Stark. It wasn't his place to bond with the granddaughter of the people he'd killed, and she already had so many great people helping to raise her. There wasn't really a place for Bucky in Morgan's life anyways.Too bad fate seemed to disagree with him on that one.





	Building Legacies

**Author's Note:**

> So this was originally posted on Tumblr and I'm putting it up here too. Basically, it's just a story of Morgan growing up and finding herself through Bucky's eyes, and how he helps to shape the woman he becomes.

Bucky knew he shouldn’t have a single thing to do with Morgan Stark. It was common sense and for as much as it hurt, he knew Tony’s funeral should’ve been the first and last time he saw her. It hurt too much, really. Seeing the way her soft brown eyes looked like they’d come right from Tony, watching her cling to Pepper as she fought to understand that her father was never coming home again.

It just wasn’t Bucky’s place. Even if he hadn’t killed Howard and Maria, and if Tony hadn’t hated him. He was nobody to the Stark-Potts family and wanted to keep his relationship with Pepper strictly business, now that she was a head advisor of the Avengers and on call for missions.

Some of the Avengers did form bonds with Morgan. For Peter Parker, it was practically expected. He was a big brother to her, sitting next to her and listening to her ramble about the things she built. Harley Keener, who Bucky had been briefly introduced to as an old friend of Tony’s who was now also an advisor and coordinator of the Avengers, was another brother to her. Though Bucky noticed that Morgan spent more time splitting up fights between Harley and Peter if they were all together.

Carol Danvers got along quite well with Morgan too. Answering the endless stream of questions about space and… whatever the hell Carol’s powers were when she could be around. Morgan constantly wore shirts modelled after Carol’s suit and it didn’t really surprise Bucky that she saw Carol as a model to follow.

Morgan wasn’t quite close to Clint, but she did adore playing with his kids. Morgan Stark and Nathaniel Barton were the best of friends, always making new toys to play with together. On days when Pepper was swamped with work and didn’t want Morgan at the compound, it was practically a given for her to end up on the Barton farm.

So needless to say, Morgan spent her days surrounded by superheroes. But that didn’t mean Bucky had a right to make himself one of those figures in her life. It didn’t matter if he wanted to help raise her to make amends to Tony even after his death. Bucky’s selfish motivations did not override the greater good of a little girl who deserved a childhood far away from a murderer like him.

But it seemed like fate disagreed.

Which was how Bucky found a small figure in the doorway of the compound’s training centre, watching him punch the shit out of a punching bag hanging in front of him.

“Can you show me how to do that?”

Bucky wished that Morgan would leave after realizing whatever she was looking for wasn’t in the gym, but he hadn’t been so lucky.

“Are you looking for Peter?” Bucky asked. “I think he’s in the-”

“I know where Pete is,” Morgan said, skipping up to Bucky. “Can you show me?”

Bucky blinked. “Show you what.”

She pointed to the punching bag. “That. Show me how to fight, please?”

Bucky’s throat went impossibly tight. It was wrong, so fucking wrong. He couldn’t imagine what Morgan thought of the world, being surrounded by people who could kill a man with a pinky every day. He didn’t know what quite was going through her head to make her want to learn how to do the same, but he had some ideas. It hurt him to think about that.

And even if she did learn to fight, it shouldn’t have been from Bucky. There were other people who could teach her, other people who didn’t have Bucky’s complicated past. It just wasn’t his place.

“I think… I think you should ask your mother about that, kiddo.” Bucky forced the words out, trying not to fidget.

Morgan’s eyes flickered with a darkness no child her age should know. “Mommy’s busy. She has important things to do, you know? She saves people. I shouldn’t bother her.”

Oh. Bucky’s gut twisted. That was no decision Morgan should’ve made, thinking that she had to be the bigger person and let Pepper do her job. No one should’ve made that decision, but knowing Morgan did was probably the worst knowledge Bucky would ever carry.

“I think Peter would teach you some stuff. I’m not really good at helping others.” That was a lie. Sort of. Bucky had trained the girls in the Red Room. He trained… Natasha. But still, it was also the truth. Training them hadn’t helped them in the long run. And he sure as hell wasn’t about to make Morgan that type of killing machine.

Morgan tilted her chin up in a show of bravery. “I don’t want him. Pete will baby me.” She was definitely right about that. “You have a cool arm.” Her little hands reached up to grab Bucky’s metal arm, as she literally began to climb up it, legs swinging happily through the air. “I think you’d be the best teacher.”

“Why me?” Bucky could barely get the question out, bending his elbow so Morgan could sit on his forearm.

Morgan smiled brightly. “Mommy said you’re the Winter Solider. If you have soldier in your name, you have to be the best fighter.”

Bucky… Bucky really didn’t know how to feel about that or argue it.

“I didn’t pick that name.” Bucky unstrung the punching bag from where it hung and dragged it off to the corner.

“Daddy didn’t pick his name either.” Morgan followed Bucky. She went quiet a moment. “Do you miss him?”

Bucky paused in front of the closet that stored other punching bags. “I… your dad didn’t like me a lot.” He sighed. “But yeah, I miss him.”

He turned to glance at Morgan. She looked sad and Bucky almost thought it was the memory of Tony before he realized she was staring at his hand putting the punching bag away.

Bucky smiled. “Relax, kid. I’m just getting a softer one. It’s impossible to teach a kid how to punch against a bag designed for metal fists.”

Morgan’s face split into an excited grin. She followed Bucky as he hung up a new, softer bag.

And so that was how Bucky spent the rest of his afternoon, kneeling behind Morgan and wrapping his shaking hands around her tiny ones, showing her how to make a proper fist and square her legs for the right form. It was… nicer than he expected.

Morgan was patient and laster much longer than Bucky expected. The bag barely gave to her swings, but Bucky could feel the anger she put into each punch. He decided that it was better for Morgan to take her anger out this way than something more destructive. At least if he believed that it was easier to help Morgan.

“Morgan?” Pepper’s voice was on the edge of panic.

Bucky looked up in time to watch Pepper poke her head into the gym and sigh in relief.

“Morgan, what are you doing?” Pepper walked into the room, heels clicking.

Bucky pushed himself to his feet. “I’m sorry, she just wandered in, I didn’t mean to impose.”

“Bucky showed me how to punch,” Morgan said, holding her arms up for Pepper to pick her up. “I like him.” She rested her head on Pepper’s shoulder with a yawn. “Can I play with him more?”

Pepper smiled softly. “That’s up to James, sweetheart. As long as you’re not bothering him.”

“It’s fine.” Bucky blew stray bangs out of his face. “She’s a good kid, Potts.”

Pepper smiled and nodded. “She’s perfect.”

 

And so it became a common thing. A few times a week Morgan would find Bucky in the training room and tug on his arm until he showed her a few things. It started with punching, then kicks. Bucky gave some advice on how to fight, even if he knew how little the possibility was that Morgan would ever actually have to fight someone. He told her to use her elbows and knees, showed her where to hit. It was almost nice, having such a constant thing to look forward to. Morgan even pouted when Bucky went on long-term missions and she couldn’t train with him.

Pepper admitted to Bucky that she thought it was nice for Bucky to train Morgan and give her something constructive to take anger out on. Supposedly Morgan’s therapist said something about pent up anger in Morgan.

Between the training, Bucky and Morgan actually didn’t actually talk too much. Bucky didn’t have it in him to try to initiate conversation. People cracked jokes about how strange it was for a Stark to be quiet, but Bucky glared down the comments whenever he heard them. Morgan was too young to just be ‘a Stark’. She was a kid, and no one had any damned business tying a little, innocent girl to an impossibly daunting legacy.

 

Morgan was twelve the first time she and Bucky had a real conversation.

Morgan stormed into the training room, black boots clomping loudly as she beelined for her punching bag that was kept up all the time. Her first punch sent it swinging so hard Bucky almost thought it was going to fly across the room. She looked like she was trying to do just that, punching the poor bag faster than Bucky had ever seen from her.

“You’re gonna break a knuckle if you keep that up,” Bucky warned, taking a sip of his energy drink.

Morgan whipped around to face Bucky. “I don’t care.”

The look of her in one of Tony’s old shirts that Pepper never had the heart to throw out and ripped jeans reminded him of an idle comment Clint made that Morgan was going into an early teenage rebellion. Bucky disagreed with that, but never really voiced it. He didn’t see Morgan’s obvious personality that everyone else missed out on until she could properly express it as some kind of phase.

The glowing glare didn’t phase Bucky. He’d trained the Black Widow. “You will tomorrow.”

The seemed to be enough to make Morgan pause, letting out a slow breath. “You’re right.” She sounded as frustrated as she looked.

Bucky bit the inside of his cheek. He should probably do something.

“You… you wanna talk, kid?”

Morgan gave Bucky a long look. “I hate it.” She went back to punching. “No one sees me. They only see him.”

Bucky waited for her to explain.

“I’m sick of it.” A hard hit to the bag. “I’m sick of people telling me I have his eyes.” Another hit. “I’m sick of just being the daughter of the guy who saved the universe. Everyone else got their family back, why did I have to lose mine?”

Oh.

Bucky didn’t know what to say to that. ‘I’m sorry’ didn’t quite seem to cut it.

“I see you.”

Okay, that was stupid. Bucky needed to save… that.

“I see a brilliant young girl who’s better than what other people think of her,” Bucky continued. He punched his own bag a few times. “And it’s not fair. You got the short end of the stick. You deserved better.” Bucky paused. “He deserved better. But not from you. He would be so proud of you, kid.”

“You think so?” Morgan’s voice broke, and Bucky gave her the dignity of not looking over to see her cry.

“Yeah.” Bucky rolled out his shoulders. “I’m proud of you, for what it’s worth.”

“Really?”

“Really,” Bucky promised.

Morgan sniffed and let out a shaking breath. “Can you show me how to use a gun?”

Bucky paused. “Yeah. I can do that.”

Morgan was a natural shot. She picked up hand to hand about at the same rate anyone else did, but the gun was natural in her hands. It got to the point where she was in the target range even without Bucky, firing off rounds. She had preferences on what guns she liked and had even started learning how to use some longer range ones. Bucky was pretty damned proud the first time she fired off his favourite sniper.

 

She was fourteen when she built her own gun.

“Hey.” Bucky nodded to Morgan as she walked into the shooting range while Bucky was practising. He didn’t need the practice, but it was late and nightmares kept him awake. He wondered if it was the same for Morgan.

“Hey,” Morgan said. Her soft voice reminded him almost of Pepper sometimes. “Can you try this?” She handed Bucky a gun he didn’t recognize. Bucky nodded, taking it from her. It was black and sleek, with glowing blue streaks lighting up the sides. He raised the gun and pulled the trigger.

The target exploded into shrapnel.

Bucky blinked. “Damn. Where’d you get this?”

“I built it.” Morgan’s tone wasn’t proud. If anything, she almost sounded resentful of the thing. “It doesn’t run out of ammo, and converts the heat energy from your hands into… blasts, I guess.”

Bucky nodded. He was beyond curious about knowing more of the science, but he knew Morgan wasn’t in the mood of sharing. “Well, it’s a damn good gun.” He tried to hand it back to her.

Morgan shook her head. “No, keep it.” Her cheeks went a bit red. “I… I thought you could use it for missions and stuff.”

“Oh. Thank you,” Bucky said. He set the gun down. “You know, I think you’d be good with a knife. I could show you if-”

“Yes.” Morgan sounded as eager as she looked. “Please?”

Bucky smiled.

 

Morgan was sixteen the first time she properly knocked Bucky onto his ass and they were both so startled by it, she actually apologized.

Bucky didn’t just show her how to throw knives, but also how to fight close range with them. They used plastic ones in sparring, and Bucky promised not to go easy on her. He knew she’d had too much of babying from everyone else in the compound.

And finally, she’d been too fast with a hard kick to the chest that sent Bucky sprawling.

“Fucking Christ,” he groaned, propping himself up on his elbow. “That was a good hit, kid. Nice job.”

He took Morgan’s hand to pull himself to his feet. “Really?”

Bucky rolled his eyes. “I told you I’m not going easy on you. You earned that one. You still need to work on your guard though.

Morgan’s smiling was absolutely glowing.

 

Morgan was eighteen when Pepper approached Bucky, wringing her hands.

Pepper and Bucky didn’t talk outside of official Avengers business. He figured it hurt too much for both of them, and they weren’t really the type who’d click anyways. She only ever came up to Bucky with a more empathetic look on her face when Morgan was concerned.

“Can I help you, Ms Potts?” Bucky looked up from the notebook he’d been writing in. Even now, he still remembered new things from his old life, good and bad. He wrote it all down.

Pepper nodded. “I… had a question about Morgan.”

Bucky set his pen down and stared up at her, waiting.

“Do you think Morgan is field ready?” Pepper sounded… almost distraught. “She’s been talking about officially applying to be a SHIELD agent and I thought she just wanted to be an advisor but… she wants to go on missions, James. She wants to fight in the field. I know she’s been training with you a lot and a little bit with Clint’s kids but… I can’t lose her too. Especially not like that.”

Bucky stood up to properly fave Pepper and think about his words before speaking. “I think she’s absolutely more skilled than your basic entry-level SHIELD agent. She’s not Avengers worthy yet, but she’s getting there.” He put his notebook away in a drawer. “Look, if she wants to start going out in the field, I can oversee it. I’ll make sure she’s put on some low contact missions first, with no killing until she’s ready for it. I’d personally be with her. Maybe after one or two missions, she’ll decide it’s not for her, but that’s her decision to make. And I would never let anything serious get near her.

“But I can promise you, Ms Potts,” Bucky looked her dead in the eyes, “Morgan will never forgive you if you try to stop her, let alone if you actually stop her. She’s an adult now, and if it’s her decision, it’s her decision. We can do everything possible to keep her safe through it, but you’ve gotta let her grow up. Let her be ready for this, Potts.”

There was a long moment when Bucky was almost positive Pepper was going to slap him or scream at him for daring to try and tell her how to parent her only child.

But instead, she nodded.

 

A week later, Bucky and Morgan were on a helicarrier headed to Morgan’s first contact mission.

As Bucky promised to Pepper, it was an easy one, but Bucky figured even Morgan wouldn’t protest to something simple for her first dip in the water. Assuming there were no surprises, Bucky was positive Morgan would barely even need his help and Bucky didn’t plan on doing much helping. He was just there to shadow and advise.

“You ready, kid?” Bucky glanced at Morgan next to him.

Morgan nodded. She was in a mixture of basic SHIELD tac gear and her own designs. She had upgraded versions of the gun she made, as well as knives. A lot of knives. Bucky had been right about her being good with knives, and they’d become a trademark of sorts for Morgan. Bucky didn’t blame her. There was a certain fluid grace to proper knifework. “I’m ready to kick some HYDRA ass.”

Bucky smiled at that. “Good.”

As excepted, the mission went without a hitch. Bucky didn’t even do much, except once remind Morgan that killing wasn’t necessary. They got the information they were there for, got out, and were back at the compound before dinner. It was so routine for Bucky he was slipping out of his tac gear without realizing Morgan was even there.

“That looks like it hurt,” Morgan noted and Bucky turned. She pointed to the scar tissue peaking out from under his tank top.

He shrugged. “It did at the time. It’s fine now. Life moves on.”

Morgan pressed her lips together. “He… my dad had scars like that. On his chest.”

Bucky’s chest hurt. “Yeah, the arc reactor.” He tried not to think about when he’d tried to rip that arc reactor right out of Tony’s chest, or when Steve slammed his shield into it.

Morgan nodded. “Everyone keeps waiting for me to build something like that. My own arc reactor.”

Yeah?” Bucky didn’t know what to say but didn’t want to say the wrong thing to make her stop talking. Bucky knew as well as everyone else did that Morgan was a quiet sort of person, keeping to herself to the point where she bottled stuff up far too much. Bucky tried to coax as much out of her as he could, but he also didn’t want to nag her. He knew some of the people who loved her the most were the worst offenders of just alienating her bying trying to get her to open up.

“I don’t see the point of it,” Morgan said, angrily kicking off boots. “I could be an Avenger or superhero if I wanted just because I won the genetic lottery of being a genius with superhero parents. What good does building my own suit do? It’s not mine. It’s just another part of his fucking legacy.” She drew in a deep breath, eyes squeezed shut. “It’s so easy, you know? To hate him. But it’s so much harder to stop loving him. I barely even remember him, but I miss him every day, every time I see one of his stupid action figures or another memorial for him.”

Bucky nodded, sitting down next to Morgan. “I know how that feels.”

Morgan looked over. “Do you?”

“When I was in HYDRA, they took my memories,” Bucky said. “Most I got back, with time. But for the first few months, I was searching and trying to understand myself, I was constantly missing a life I couldn’t even remember. People I wasn’t even sure ever existed. I can’t imagine always living like that.”

“It sucks,” Morgan muttered. “It really sucks.”

Bucky put a hand on his shoulder. It was awkward, he was never one for physical contact. “But here’s the thing, kid. All that genius stuff, maybe that’s just your dad. And I know it’s not much an accomplishment to live with, but it’s not everything that you are. This?” Bucky picked up one of Morgan’s favourite knives. “You earned this. You worked for this, even through the parts that weren’t natural to you. And the more you work for the stuff like this, the more you step out of his shadow and build your own legacy.” Bucky stood up and handed Morgan the knife. “And personally speaking, I think it’s gonna be a pretty great legacy.”

Morgan’s smile was slow and cautious, but when it finally took over her face Bucky had to fight down his own. She stood up with her shoulders just a bit more squared than before.

 

Morgan was twenty when she was officially an Avenger, just as Pepper was retiring from field duties, making it almost poetic. Bucky seemed to be the only one not shocked that she didn’t have a suit of armour, and instead just her personally designed tac gear. And a lot of knives. It suited her much better than armour would’ve anyway.

When she started calling herself Agent 3000, Bucky figured it was an inside reference. All he knew was the way it made Pepper’s eyes just a little wet, and that was all he needed to know. A lot of street names started bouncing around for her, with Iron Heart being the most common. Bucky just kept calling her ‘kid’. Even when she yelled at him for it.

As Bucky predicted, it didn’t take long for Morgan to build her own legacy. But she earned it, just as she deserved to.

There were long days Bucky spent thinking about what Tony would think of Morgan. He wondered if Tony would’ve minded that Bucky played such a hand in shaping Morgan as Agent 3000. He’d long since made peace with what he’d done, or at least, tried to. Bucky had bad days the same as anyone else. He hoped Tony did too. And he prayed Tony knew what a great kid he made. More importantly, Bucky hoped Tony knew what a great kid Morgan made herself to be.

Morgan Stark was attached to countless legacies. The brilliance of Howard Stark, the cunning of Pepper Potts, the heroism of Tony Stark. Hell, Bucky’s name even got thrown in there too sometimes.

But the most important legacy was her own. Something undefinably amazing, that made Bucky smile every time Morgan completed another daunting mission or wiped the floor with others when sparring.

Morgan’s legacy was glowing, growing with every step she took. It was an aura around her, the confident smiles she gave to degrading comments at her expense. The quiet wisdom she carried with her wherever she went.

Morgan was born from one of the darkest tragedies humanity knew. And she lost what the rest of the world got to take back in a single snap. And still, she squared her shoulders, faced the world in front of her, even knowing it had what she could never, and decided to fight for it.

She was bravery, kindness, intelligence, and something so unique to her that was perfectly undefinable. Bucky found that to be rather beautiful, like the stars in the sky that seemed to run in her veins.

Morgan Stark was a legacy of hope. And for her, it would be enough.

**Author's Note:**

> For the record, I still hate Endgame and will continue my endeavors in ignoring the fuck out of it.
> 
> Come annoy me on Tumblr, I'm [WinterIron-Trash](https://winteriron-trash.tumblr.com/)


End file.
